The search for the stray cat

Tilman Spreckelsen

Editor in the features section.

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The forest is a peep box stage, a patch of color in a dull landscape, and the two boys who enter it through a square opening in the left side are full of expectation. In front of the stage there is a bench for the audience, next to it a waste bin with a note on which they are looking for a missing cat. Could that be the one sitting on a tree stump in the middle of the stage? In any case, the brothers approach her and turn into a wolf together, but the offer to bring the stray cat out of the forest is understandably met with suspicion. The brothers were also unsuccessful as a carrier pigeon. Until the tide turns and all three fall out of their roles. Eva Muggenthaler transformed the text of Jürg Schubiger, who died in 2014, into magical, small-scale images.each of which tells a whole series of its own stories. This does not put the actual text in the shade, but illuminates it from all directions. It turns out to be a brilliant starting point for the graphic interpretation. And incidentally asks a question that people of all ages could ask: Who do I have to be to spark your interest and make you trust me?

Jürg Schubiger, Eva Muggenthaler: "My brother and I and the cat in the forest".

Peter Hammer Verlag, Wuppertal 2021. 24 pp., Hardcover, 15 euros.

From 5 years

Once in Siberia and back

There are many good reasons to take the train, ”the book begins, and the preface then lists them: Trains are practical as a connection from A to B, they are safe, reliable and environmentally friendly. All of that is correct, but luckily this gorgeous picture book doesn't leave it at that. Because all the sensible reasons are quickly forgotten when it comes to - according to the subtitle of the book - "the most beautiful train journeys from all over the world", which are presented here opulently. You want to get on straight away: in train legends such as the Japanese Shinkansen or the Trans-Siberian Railway, the Glacier Express in the Alps or the North American Rocky Mountaineer. Or in lesser-known trains like the Namibia Desert Express, which travels 354 kilometers through desert areas. The images for the individual trains combine clarity with loyalty to the objectthe exterior of the trains is reduced to the essentials and is therefore easy to recognize. In addition, a small geography of the areas crossed is created, and celestial phenomena such as the northern lights and the midnight sun are briefly and efficiently explained. And so reason comes into its own through the back door: After reading this, who wants to go on vacation by car?

Ryan Johnson, Nathaniel Adams: "Traveling by Rail".

Verlag Kleine Gestalten, Berlin 2020. 72 pp., Hardcover, 19.90 euros.

From 7 years

Smilla with grass-green hair